Back to the Basics
by SilverFallen
Summary: A chain of events can lead to the change of someone's life completely. Naruto OC
1. Chapter 1

They were inseparable in everything they did. Absolutely everything. You never saw one without the other; that was just unthinkable. They were infamous too. Yumiko and Shizuka Nara; the little identical girls that were constantly up to no good. Well, Yumiko was never up to any good; Shizuka just tagged along because she was attached to her sister by the hip. So naturally, they got into trouble together; even if Shizuka was afraid of getting in trouble.

Running through the grass, both had huge smiles spread across their faces. They ran side by side, always keeping pace with the other, to make sure they could still swing their arms as they held hands. They were completely identical; the same waist-length gray hair with the brown bangs, the same dark blue eyes that they were constantly complemented on, the same facial structure, and the same body. They were identical to what the eye could see.

It took beyond the naked eye to see that they were only identical in one way; looks. As people themselves, they were night and day. They were each others yin and yang.

Yumi - as everyone called her - was named Yumiko, meaning 'happy child'. She lived up to her name fairly well. She almost always had a smile on her face, the only exceptions being when punishment was dished out on her. She was the rebellious and disrespectful one, not wanting to listen to what she was told. She wanted to be herself, and didn't want anybody to tell her otherwise. Headstrong, she was the brawn of the two.

Shizuka was another story. She lived up to her name as well; 'quiet'. Shy and timid, she left the talking to Yumi with anybody she didn't know. Yumi had no problem talking to people. Shizuka did on the other hand. She would rather be left alone and invisible. It was easier for her. However, those that knew her well enough knew she had a voice and knew she could talk, and talk, and talk. They would tease her, saying she needed to stop bundling it all inside and dumping it on them. However, what she lacked in courage she made up in intelligence. She was the problem-solver, quick-thinker and smart one; both street smart and book smart. She was definitely the brain.

"Let's go down to the playground!" Yumi exclaimed as she ran along side her twin.

"Okay." Shizuka said with a smile.

They ran to the park. When they got there, Yumi plunged straight into the group of kids, dragging along a slightly reluctant Shizuka. They forced their way through the mass and grabbed the last two swings available. Shizuka sat down and rocked lightly, keeping her feet planted solidly. Yumi however looked around eagerly.

"Kazumi!" She called, waving her friend over. "Come push me!"

Kazumi ran over with a smile. She waved at Shizuka, who smiled back shyly, before pulling back on Yumi's swing, then pushing as much force into it as she could.

"Higher!" Yumi laughed as she kicked her feet out and soared.

"Only if you take me on with you." Kazumi laughed.

"Okay!" Yumi said as she reached higher and higher. The next time the swing came around Kazumi grabbed a hold of the chains and jumped onto the back behind Yumi. The two laughed as they swung back and forth.

"Careful!" Shizuka shrieked, watching her sister and friend timidly.

"We'll be fine!" They chimed in together.

"Dare you to jump." Kazumi teased as she smiled down at her adventurous friend. Looking upwards, Yumi grinned, accepting the challenge.

When the swing reached its highest point, Yumi pushed herself off and fell to the ground, rolling a few times before she sat up with a wide grin. At the sudden shift of weight, the swing tipped and threw Kazumi off backwards. She just sat up and laughed as if nothing happened.

Shizuka sat on her swing and stared wide eyed at the two girls, before getting up and running over to Yumi. "Are you alright?" She asked over and over, helping her sister up. Yumi replied with an, I'm fine, before skipping off to Kazumi.

Sadly, Shizuka looked away and stared at the other kids in the playground. She saw her cousins, Shikamaru and Scott, lounging around and staring at the sky like the lazy bums they were - none-the-less, she still loved them. With them was Shikamaru's best friend Chouji. Not too far away, she saw another famous duo, Sakura and Ino - she never paid much attention to them, but she knew they were fairly similar to her and her own sister. She watched the kids run by, looking for a familiar face until she find found three very familiar faces. Raidon, Sasuke and Neji were sitting in a circle, all smiling about something. Glancing back at her sister with Kazumi, she decided she could go say hi to the trio.

As she walked over, the three all looked up, hearing her approach. Raidon smiled and pulled her over the second she was close enough. She pretended to ignore Neji leaning over to ask Sasuke which one she was.

"That's Shizuka smart one." Sasuke hissed. Neji frowned, but smiled to Shizuka.

"So... what are you doing?" She asked, trying to change the subject away from her.

"Looks what Sasuke found!" Raidon said, holding up a little ball of fur. Curiously, Shizuka stared at it, then jumped as it moved. "It's a baby raccoon! Isn't it cute!" Raidon said, seeing her friend jump.

"It won't bite." Sasuke laughed, steadying a jumpy Shizuka. She blushed and looked away, and he did so as well. Neji smirked, not letting this chance pass by.

"Sasuke and Shizuka sitting in a tree--" He started, but was cut off when Sasuke punched him in the arm. Shizuka brushed even brighter.

"Hey!" Raidon cried, holding the fuzz ball in her arms. Sheepishly Shizuka, Sasuke and Neji went back to her and her new little pet.

"He's so cute." Shizuka said as she stroked his head. "Where'd you find him?" She asked, turning to look at Sasuke.

"Just on the playground over there." He said, pointing to an area opposite them.

"So, what do we do with him?" Neji asked, voicing the question they all had in their minds. They stared at each other blankly and shrugged. All of them knew they couldn't take it home; none of their parents would let them.

"We can't just leave it here." Shizuka said, picking up the raccoon from Raidon's arms and stroking it's head.

"Then what do we do with it?" Raidon asked, cocking her head to the side.

"It's a wild animal. It'll survive." The young Hyuuga said with a sheepish shrug, not entirely sure it was true.

"No, because it doesn't have a mommy to take care of it." The Nara girl retorted, clutching the raccoon closer to her. It just stared up at her with curious dark eyes.

"Then what do we do?" Raidon asked, staring at the animal with wide aquamarine eyes.

"Whatcha guys doing?"

The four little kids looked up to see Kazumi and Yumi walking over with curious looks on their faces.

"Look sis!" Shizuka said, holding the raccoon out to her twin. Yumi looked the raccoon over then frowned.

"Mommy and Daddy would never let us keep it..." She said. "They won't even let us have a dog." Both girls frowned, knowing it was true. Their little brother, Reizo was in the terrible-two's stage, and their mother was pregnant, again. They just couldn't have any pets.

They turned and asked if any of the other kids could keep the little animal, but all of them shook their heads.

"Just go put it in one of the trees." Neji said, shrugging. "It'll be alright."

Reluctantly, Shizuka handed the raccoon to Sasuke, who then walked over to one of the trees and set the animal down.

"Yumi! Shizuka! Shikamaru! Scott! Time to go home!"

All four Nara kids looked up to see Shikaku calling and waving them over. Shikamaru and his brother groaned, not wanting to get up from their lazy business, but they did anyways. Waving good-bye to their friends, the twins ran off after their cousins and over to their uncle.

"Hi Uncle!" They said at the same time, both smiling.

"Your father asked me to bring you two home." He said, patting them both on the head.

"Okay." They said in unison, again, then ran off to their cousins, giggling as they went. Yumi tackled Scott and Shizuka hugged Shikamaru.

"Hey, let go." Shikamaru hissed.

"Who's on me? Get off!" Scott complained, trying to figure out which twin had attacked him.

"Me silly!" Yumi laughed, clinging onto her cousin.

"Which one is 'me'?" He snapped.

"Well, I'm Yumi of course, so that's Shizuka." Shizuka said, rolling her eyes like her sister would.

"Duhhh." Yumi laughed. "Can't believe you didn't know it was me... I thought you knew me apart from my sister." She pretended to start crying, trying to imitate her sister.

"Oh, stop crying Shizuka." The real Shizuka said as she shook her head.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Shikamaru hissed. "No, you're Shizuka, and you're Yumi!" He said, pointing to the real Shizuka and then to the real Yumi.

"What?!" Both cried out. "No! I'm Shizuka!" Yumi said, pointing to herself. "And I'm Yumi." Shizuka snapped.

"This is confusing!" Scott said, tearing away from Yumi.

"Hey, be nice kids." Shikaku finally said, laughing at the twins. "You two are so troublesome. Be nice to my boys."

"Yes Uncle... Sorry..." The girls said, both pouting.

"Okay, so which one is Yumi, and which one is Shizuka?" Shikamaru asked.

The twins looked at each other, giggled, then ran off without even answering the question.

Shikamaru sighed. "They're so troublesome..."


	2. Chapter 2

"Daddy!" The twins yelled in unison as a young man with his hair pulled back into a ponytail walked into the room. He dropped a bag on the floor, then collapsed onto the couch, only giving his daughters a weak smile that could have been taken as an apology.

Shi and Yumi looked at each other, then climbed onto the couch and plopped themselves down onto their father's lap, who chuckled in response.

"We missed you daddy!"

"How was the mission?"

"Did you bring us anything?"

Again, he laughed, and ruffled the girls' hair. "I'll tell you tomorrow, but right now, I'm tired. It's late anyways, you should go to sleep." He said, scooping them up into his arms. He carried them into their rooms, then set them down on their own bed. As he did so, Sarai, their mother walked by, and seeing him, frowned.

"We need to talk." She said, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot.

With a sigh, and muttering something under his breath that sounded like 'troublesome woman' he followed her out.

"Hey Shizuka." Yumiko said mischievously, crawling onto her sister's bed. "Let's go see what mommy and daddy are arguing about."

"They're not arguing." Shizuka said, rolling her eyes and turning away from her sister.

"Whatever. Then let's go find out what they're talking about."

With wide eyes, Shi turned back to her twin and hissed, "No! We'll get in trouble!"

Yumi rolled her eyes and half groaned, half spoke as she leaned in closer to Shi. "That's the fun part you little baby. Come on." Without waiting for a response, she grabbed her sister's hand, and dragged her out of bed. Shizuka decided it was best to stick to her name-sake, and kept quite as they ran through the house.

As they reached the kitchen, the sound of their parent's arguing reached their ears, and they hide at the door way, pressing their ears to the wall. Yumi had a smirk on her face, but Shi looked completely terrified as she listened to her parents argue.

"... never even home anymore! Its missions this! And missions that!"

"That's not true I--"

"Don't give me that crap! Reizo doesn't even recognize you! You're own son!"

"He's three years old!"

"You can't even tell the twins apart!"

"Daddy can't tell us apart?" Shizuka whispered, feeling like a fool. How could he not tell them apart? He was their father. He loved them. Didn't he? Sure he was never around, but he should still be able to tell them apart.

"Shhh!" Yumi hissed, straining to hear the rest of the argument.

So they listened to the argument go back and forth, until Shi was heartbroken and Yumi was afraid. The constant accusing and the cuss words flowed through their young innocent ears, and it wasn't until then that they realized their family wasn't as secure as they had once thought. And for the first time in their young lives, they doubted that their parents truly loved each other anymore.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Their father yelled. The sound of heavy footsteps grew louder and louder. Looking at each other in panic, the twins knew they had to run, but they were still too terrified to move.

"Like you care Iwao!" Sarai screamed, her voice louder then before. They were going to be caught.

"We gotta go before they catch us!" Shi said quietly, tugging on her sister's arm, but Yumi wouldn't even budge. "Yumi! Come on!"

"Wait!" Yumi said, hushing her sister, but Shizuka just stared back at her with wide, horrified eyes.

"You think I don't know about you're boyfriend? You think I don't know about _this_?" Their father snapped. At the time, the girls did not understand what he had been referring to. Later on, Shizuka learned that he had been referring to her 5-month pregnant stomach. "His name's Ryuu. I've seen the letters you write him, and I've seen him before. I know what you're up too!"

Before the twins were given a chance to run and hide, their mother threw the door open and cam storming into the room. The moment her green eyes saw them, her nostrils flared, and she stomped off, not daring to say a word to them. Not even bothering to yell at them for ease-dropping.

"Sarai!" Their father called from the other room, and before he could see them, the twins scrambled to their feet and ran into their little brother's room. The door closed behind them, then they both sat with their backs too it, blue eyes wide with fright, chest's heaving as they caught their breath.

"Yumi? Shi?" Reizo said, rubbing his eyes and leaning over to stare at his sisters. "W-what happened?" He asked.

As Yumi caught her breath she looked over and saw her twin trembling with fright. It was too dark however for her to see the tears that streamed down Shi's face.

"M-mommy and daddy were arguing..." Yumi said quietly.

"Again," Shi added, barely above a whisper as her voice cracked.

"But... but..." The young boy said, staring with wide eyes at his sisters. He crawled out of bed, then stumbled over to them. Plopping onto the ground, he looked up at them, his dark eyes showing the confusion that flashed through his mind. "They love each other..."

Yumi looked away, not knowing how to tell her brother the truth. Shi shook her head. Both of them were afraid to shatter his perfect world, where mommy and daddy were happy and loved each other dearly, and that they were a happy family.

"No Reizo... they don't..." Shizuka finally said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

Too young to understand, he looked at the twins, his lower lip trembling. "But they're mommy and daddy. They have to love each other." He pleaded.

"It doesn't work like that." Yumiko said, glaring at the wall. Even though she was young herself, she and her sister had learned that sometimes, things weren't always as they had seemed. Tonight was just the final proof they needed. Now they realized, everything was going to be different.

"But..." Reizo whined, trying to come up with something to say, but as he watched his older sister's, he realized something truly was wrong. He realized nothing was going to be the same. Finally giving over to the tears, he buried his head in Shizuka's chest and sobbed, which brought the tears back to her eyes.

"What if," He started through the tears, trying to speak audibly, but that proved to be too difficult. He waited a long moment and dried his eyes before starting again. "What if they try to separate us?"

Horror of being separated from her siblings widened both Yumi's and Shi's eyes. They looked up at each other, and stared at each other for a while, as if reading what the other was thinking. They knew what the other was thinking.

"We won't let them." They said together.

"Nothing," Yumi started.

"And we mean nothing," Shizuka added in for her sister.

"Is going to tear us apart."

Hearing them speak in unison, he looked up at the twins, then nodded. "Nothing." He agreed, forcing a smile.

"Let's make a promise." Shizuka said, looking at Yumiko, then Reizo. They watched her, ears open. "No matter what happens, we're going to stick together. Even if it means running away. Because we're all we've got..." She said, faltering on the last part. She bit her lip and blinked away tears.

Yumiko nodded and forced a smile to grace her features, but it was strained.

"O-okay..." Reizo said weakly.

The three of them stood, then with the girls each holding one of their brother's hands, walked to his bed, and all three curled up together, pressing tightly together. They fell asleep that way, reassured that even if their parents didn't love each other, they - the siblings - could still be a family. Even without parents.


	3. Chapter 3

She was in a dream. A happy dream. Everything was finally getting better. Her parents were in love again, she had a new little brother, and they were a happy family. At the moment, she was running with her twin and Reizo. Suddenly they were in the house, and they ran up to their mother with the baby. She smiled warmly at them, a sight they hadn't seen in a long time.

"What's his name mommy?" Reizo asked, poking his little brother.

"Where's daddy?" Shizuka asked, with a smile, wanting her father to see his new son. But for some reason, her question went over Sarai's head.

Her green eyes flashed, then she stroked the baby's cheek in a way that seemed more than just motherly. "His name is Ryuu."

Shizuka sat up in bed, her forehead sweaty, and her eyes wide. Ryuu. That name was familiar. Her father had said it not too long ago. But she wasn't given time to figure out why the name sounded so familiar. A choking feeling swept over her, and the smell of smoke engulfed her. Her eyes shot around the room, and the first thing she noticed was the orange glow. Everywhere. Her eyes then drifted to the ceiling and she saw the pitch black smoke that was slowly getting closer and closer.

She scrambled out of bed and ran over to the bed on the opposite side of the room. Shaking her identical twin, she gasped and cried out, desperately trying to wake her sister up.

"What?" Yumiko hissed when she finally woke up. She didn't need an explanation though. She saw the same thing her sister had seen only moments earlier. She scrambled out of bed, and grabbed her shaky sister by the shoulders.

"We have to get Reizo." She said, staring her sister in the eyes. Shi nodded weakly, trying to hide how terrified she was.

"Good." With that, she grabbed her sister's hand, ran out of the room, and then ran down the hall to her brother's room. As she reached the door, Shizuka glanced over to her parent's room and saw the door ajar. She pulled away from Yumi, then ran.

"Shi! Dangit." Yumi hissed, but let her sister go.

Pushing the door further in, Shi peeked her head into the room, and stared with wide eyes. Her father sat on the bed, with his head on her mother's chest. His shoulders heaved, and then Shi realized, he was sobbing. Sarai remained unmoving.

"D-daddy?" She croaked. His head jerked up, and the second she saw the tears roll down his face, her own set of tears finally escaped. Her mother was dead. Terrified, she shook her head, trying to tell herself it wasn't true as she backed out of the room.

"Baby Doll, wait!" Iwao called, but Shizuka turned and fled. Tears streamed from her face, blinding her as she ran. Every breath she took was filled with ink dark smoke that filled her lungs and burned her throat. Halfway down the hall, she tripped, but immediately picked herself back up and ran again.

When she reached Reizo's room, the door was closed, and she reached for the doorknob. Her palm pressed to the metal knob, and she screamed in pain, for the metal was burning hot from the surrounding fires. She pulled her hand away, and clutched it to her chest, trying to stop herself from sobbing.

"Y-yumi! R-Reizo!" She cried, but she got no response. Thinking quickly, she kicked at the door, which fell away easily. Cautiously, she walked into the room, barely able to see over the tears that stung at her eyes with the new burning pain on her hand. She called out her siblings names again, but still she didn't get any response. Slowly, she walked to her brother's bed, her legs shaky and barely supporting her. Sucking in contaminated air and gasping from the pain, her mouth grew drier and drier, until even breathing hurt.

She noticed two things as she reached the bed. One, was a pile of wood in a huge stack, burning. The wood, had been the pillars from the ceiling, she realized as she looked up at the wooden ceiling off the room. The ceiling was going to collapse.

The second thing she noticed, was Reizo's body, twisted at a weird angle on his bed. And he wasn't moving. No even breathing.

Her whole body trembled as she shifted his body around, then pressed her ear to his chest. But she couldn't hear anything over her sobbing. The only thing she did know, was she couldn't feel a rise and fall of his chest. She lifted her head and stared at his face, for the first time, then screamed. His eyes were wide with horror, and his mouth hung open. His face was frozen as if he had died screaming.

Horrified, Shi stumbled backwards, trying to put as much space between herself and her brother's body as possible. Catching her foot on a piece of wood, she tripped and fell on her back, into a pile of wooden boards from the ceiling. Immediately her arm burned red hot, and she let out a scream. Pulling her arm close to the chest, she sucked in a breath of air and bit her lip, trying to stop the sob that waited in her chest. She was ready to lose it. Her mother and brother were dead.

She turned her head away, trying to block out the image of her dead brother that was lodged into her brain. However, what she saw next would forever haunt her, and broke her heart in an instant.

A small hand lay on the floor, its body buried beneath a pile of wood. Scrambling to her feet, Shizuka pushed away the boards and unburied the body. What she saw was herself, blood dripping from a wound on her forehead, down her cheek, across her chin, then down her neck, leaving a trail of red across her face, as if she'd drawn on it with a marker. Her eyes were closed, and her face was calm, relaxed. But there was no steady breathing, no rise and fall of her chest. She was dead. _I'm dead_. Shizuka thought, bending over the body, tears running down her face in the same motion that the blood had rolled down her mirror-imaged cheek.

"Yumi!" She screamed, shaking her sister's shoulder, hoping, begging, praying, that she was wrong, and that Yumiko's eyes would open, and the two of them would run out of the burning building together. But Yumiko's eyes were locked close. She didn't respond. Not even a twitch. She was dead.

As fast as she could, Shi got to her feet and ran for the door. _Make it stop! Wake me up! _It had to be a nightmare, there's no way they could be dead. Just no way. Especially not Yumi. But she knew it. Her heart was heavy, and she felt as if she had been stabbed. She felt as if she was going to die herself. When Yumi tripped and scrapped her knee, Shi's knee was swollen as well. When Shi accidentally hit her head, Yumi had a headache. So, when Yumi died, Shi felt ready to die herself. Even in death, they were in sync. Her twin, her other half. They were not complete without each other. How was she going to be complete? They weren't too different people, they were two different parts of one person. She was half a person.

As she ran for the door, tears blinding her, she didn't notice another chunk of the ceiling give away and collapse, until it had fallen right in front of her, a heap of burning wood, blocking the door. Panic swelled in her chest, and her body froze. She was trapped in the same room with her dead siblings. She was going to die. As the realization hit in, all she knew was if she was going to die, she wanted to die with Yumi. But as she turned to stare at her sister, horror swept through her. Yumi was really dead. The strong one, was dead.

She had convinced herself she was going to die, but she couldn't believe her twin was dead. So she ran to a corner of her room, sat down, hugging her knees, and cried her eyes out. She cried until every last tear left her body. She cried until there was a trail down her cheek, clean compared to the rest of her face; dark and covered in soot and ashes. She cried until her throat and lungs burned and eventually refused to make a noise. She cried, sobbed, in silence.

She was still crying, even when something was rammed against the door from the other side. Wiping her eyes, and finishing her cry, she looked up at the door, wedged up against the pile of burning planks. Somebody was trying to get in. For a split second, she had the slightest sliver of hope she would get out, but that hope was shattered when she looked at her siblings' bodies. Instead she just sat and watched the door.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the pile of wood was pushed away far enough to squeeze a human through the crack. Shi just watched with sad, dark blue eyes. A fairly tall, young man walked through, clad in an ANBU uniform. A white, animal mask covered his face, but immediately Shi saw spikes of silver hair jutting out above the mask. Her heart rose. She opened her mouth to cry out his name, but her throat burned and not a single sound would come out. She couldn't even croak his name.

He walked over first to her brother's bed, and looked down at Reizo through the eye holes in his mask. He sighed, then looked down. Turning to leave, his eyes caught Yumi's body, and his breath got caught in his throat. He looked back and forth between the two siblings, making the connection. Finally, after staring at them with despair, believing nobody could have survived, he looked up. She stared back at him.

"Shizuka?" He asked, walking over to her. She nodded slowly, her eyes welling with tears. Pulling the mask from his face, he revealed another mask, but this one was different. This mask covered his nose and mouth, but left his two different eye colors visible.

_Kakashi-kun!_ Relief flooded over her as he kneeled down next to her, and scooped her up into his arms. Carefully, he wiped the soot from her face, then placed his animal mask on her.

"Don't breathe in any more smoke, okay? I'm going to get you out of here."

With a nod, she buried her head in his chest. She was alive, and safe. She was more than safe with Kakashi. He was her best friend, and he had just pulled her out of a burning building. Just in his strong arms, she felt as if nothing could hurt her. Nothing except the death of her brother and sister. She still couldn't accept it.

She heard his voice, and some other voice she didn't recognize, but she only picked up bits and pieces of what they were saying. She was somewhere between awake and aware that she was in his arms, and somewhere off in dream land, where everything was alright.

"...the only one left... Her father though... mother's dead... other girl and boy are dead..."

"Get her to a hospital... clean up the mess..."

"It's alright Shizuka, you're gonna be alright." He was stroking her hair. Stroking her to sleep, until she did finally fall asleep.


End file.
